Eagle Flies into Carnival Contention

The patience game is paying off for trainer Stephen Massingham after emerging talent Lean Eagle charged to a brilliant first-up victory at Cluden Park on Thursday.

The son of Lean Mean Machine stamped himself as a genuine winter carnival contender when he stormed home to beat the flying Roweiner’s Dance and Russian Mint in the Tradies Day Race Day May 8 Open Hcp (1000m).

The win was the first leg of a winning treble for Massingham in consecutive races. The stable also won with the impressive She’s Speedy in the Mitavite BM55 Hcp (1000m) and Line ‘Em Up Loui in the Ladbrokes BM65 Hcp (1200m).

Massingham is now looking forward to plotting a course to the Cleveland Bay Hcp in August with Lean Eagle who he has long regarded as a potential top liner.

“I thought Russian Mint and Roweiner’s Dance might have been a bit hard for him today because they’d had a few runs and he was first-up,” Massingham said.

“But he’s always shown tons of ability and I’ve always had a big opinion of him. Ryan (Wiggins) has had a wrap on him for two years.

“We’ve just taken our time with him. He stepped up to open grade today but he was down in weight and he was able to storm home.

“Roweiner’s Dance is a very good horse and he’s especially hard to run down when he slips three clear on straightening.

“I’ll most probably give our bloke a couple more runs and put him away for a month or so.

“He’ll go to the Cleveland Bay Hcp and on to Cairns if he gets the right runs.

“The timing is important for those sorts of races – to get in but down in the weights.”

While Lean Eagle was storming to his seventh win from 14 starts,  Massingham was keeping a close eye on his old champ Speed Legend who closed off with a nice sixth six lengths away.

The rising 10-year-old showed enough under his massive 67kg impost for Massingham to give the nod for him to race on and defend his Cleveland Bay title.

“I was happy with the old bloke. He ran through the line good and beat a couple home which is what we wanted to see,” Massingham said.

“He’ll have a few weeks off and he might go to the Mackay Newmarket or Cleveland Bay without much more racing and maybe just some trials. 

“All of the team have performed well today. I was really impressed with She’s Speedy and I think she might go on with it.

“And we’ll just keep chipping through the grades with Line ‘Em Up Loui who’s going really well.”

With stable jockey Wiggins out suspended, Sean Cormack stepped in with polished rides to win on Lean Eagle and Line ‘Em Up Loui.

He made it a treble with a surprise win on roughie Magic Sunny Day for trainer Terry McGovern in the Great Northern Brewing Co. 3YTO QTIS Mdn (1200m).